


(Cannot Be Reconciled) With Wisdom, Justice and Love

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst and Horror, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Conditioned to Accept Horror, Conflicted Kylo Ren, Dark Kylo Ren, False Rape Accusation, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, M/M, Mass Murder, Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Obliviously Evil, War Crimes, War is hell
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:53:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25173424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: “ This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love.”-Martin Luther King Jr.——————-The war between the First Order and the Resistance, and what it made of Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren
Kudos: 6
Collections: Darkpilot Thematic Stories, The Darkpilot Library





	1. Out of Principle

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: Title and summary quote come from here: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
> 
> Let’s say writing about Enfys and Ben kind of inspired this.

“Sir. The villagers.” It is Phasma’s voice that jars Kylo Ren out of his thoughts — out of watching Poe Dameron be dragged to his shuttle. (It seems in his dreams, they keep being separated)

There is them. Of course them. The village is already burning; the stormtroopers’ handiwork. They do what they do out of principle, Kylo knows — to find Skywalker. 

(A flash of green, and that look in Skywalker’s eyes, like he was cutting out a cancer, putting down a rabid animal)

Principle. Ben Solo would have found it disgusting, the idea of killing villagers. Kylo Ren has become...used to it. He has become accustomed to it, to the smell of smoke that his mask protects him from. He has become accustomed to the screams of the dying, the pleas for mercy. Everything he has done, getting clever, getting ruthless — principle. Snoke has taught him much about it. 

Snoke has told him that the Resistance is no better. Kylo has heard of the rapes they commit, the tortures they inflict. The children they’re willing to prey on and kill. They are monsters, and anyone who shelters them needs to be punished because they’re complicit —

(Kylo wonders idly if Poe’s ever participated. But he just knows he hasn’t. Poe would never. Poe doesn’t have the will to knowingly destroy someone)

After a split second that feels longer, he says to Phasma, “Kill them all.”

He doesn’t cackle about it. He doesn’t break down like a fool, though there are times he wants to. Principle. It’s all out of principle. If they’re not with him, they’re against him. Even as Phasma orders the stormtroopers to fire, the villagers cower, scream — is it a trick, Kylo thinks. Is it a deception, a changing of shapes like the monsters he’s convinced they are?

It could be anything. Kylo has killed before. Or given the order. Or manipulated people into taking their lives. Does a Knight of Ren live too long? With the blood of civilians

_accomplices_

on his hands...can he go back if he wanted to?

But he can’t be the monster, can he?

Through the cacophony of blaster bolts and screams (the mask doesn’t let him see them dying too well, but he feels the villagers dying in fear and pain), he hears Poe’s voice. Pleading for their lives.

He sounds so earnest...

The villagers fall. The stormtroopers (save one, a trooper with a bloody handprint on his helmet) shoot. All this, all out of principle. 

All this, in the name of peace and security. 


	2. After the Interrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo, post-interrogation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

It was in the privacy of his quarters that Kylo Ren actually removed his helmet, and he could breathe again. It was coming in little spurts, sporadic and quick, but he supposed that it was fitting. After what he had done to Poe —

Stars, he had been used to interrogation. He had been used to information retrieval. He had been used to cracking open others’ skulls and seeing what was inside. Too well, actually. He had seen memories, he had seen fragments. But this...

Poe. Just being inside his mind, combing through his memories...he hadn’t rubbed in Poe’s past. Part of it was practicality; he didn’t want Poe to know that Ben and Kylo were one and the same. Part of it was just wanting to get to the point. Part of it was the fact he didn’t want to hurt Poe — even though Snoke had ordered him to —

He’d knocked Poe out after that. He deserved some sort of respite after that. But...did it matter? He had still broken Poe. Hurt him beyond measure. 

”I’m sorry,” he said to the empty room. “I’m sorry, Poe.” He should be praying to Grandfather’s mask for guidance. But in that moment, he was so lost that he doubted even that would do. 


End file.
